Despatches from a Dying Country: Reflections on Modern England (Paperback)

he Hampden Press, London, 2001, 222pp,

Reviewed in Issues & Views October 22, 2001

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To anyone who pays attention to the cultural decline now underway in England, the publication of this new book is meaningful. The book, by libertarian Sean Gabb, is entitled, Dispatches From a Dying Country: Reflections on Modern England (Hampden Press). In it, Gabb documents the gradual deterioration of liberal traditions in the land where so many civil liberties were conceived.

The theme of Gabb's book and the facts of daily life as reported in England's newspapers complement each other. Consider, for example, the case of Ruby Barber, a 93-year-old woman, who lives in Northampton, whose home, over the years, has been broken into and burglarized several times. She and her son thought it wise to install barbed wire around vulnerable sections of the property to ward off future break-ins. Since the wire was installed two years ago, there have been no further burglaries of her home. One would consider this a problem solved, wouldn't one? Not so, says the local council, which has ordered Barber's son to remove the wire, "because it could injure someone who foolishly tries to climb it."

Now consider the case of a Norfolk farmer, Tony Martin, who is currently serving life in prison for shooting two thugs who invaded his home in 1999. One of the would-be robbers was killed and the other wounded in a leg. Before his trial, while out on bail, Martin could not return to his farm and was forced to live, instead, in "safe" houses. This was necessary, claims London's Telegraph, because it was well known that criminals had taken out a contract on his life as vengeance for his killing one of their own. Martin's 350-acre farm was protected and cared for by villagers who formed an advocacy group to support him through his tribulations. Several farmers, some traveling from long distances to the Martin farm, cooperated and gathered in the wheat harvest, which would have been ruined without their concern.

During Martin's trial, before the final verdict was known, the burglar who was wounded, Brendan Fearon, was officially consulted by the authorities as to how much parole time he, the burglar, thought that Martin deserved, if Martin were convicted. It seems that England's Home Office was following a law that a "victim," in this case the injured Fearon, has the right to have a say in the conditions of his offender's release, the "offender" being Martin. (Fearon, by the way had 34 previous convictions for burglary.)

Well, this was too much even for the balmy British, and a Member of Parliament called the ruling to consult Fearon "madness," exclaiming, "Whatever the rights and wrongs about the degree of force Tony Martin used, it's turning common sense upside down to consult a burglar about the liberty of his victim." By the way, after being encouraged to write a long dissertation chastising Martin for having killed his 16-year-old partner, whom he referred to as "a little boy," Fearon then complained that he had suffered "post-traumatic stress" as a result of the shooting.

Perhaps, along with the farmers who stood by Martin, one of the few sane people left in England is Joseph Fearon, the father of the wounded burglar. Mr. Fearon is quoted in the Telegraph saying that his son deserves to be in prison. Fearon's son is currently serving three years for the Martin burglary and has applied for early release. Upon learning this, the elder Fearon called on his son to give up his attempt at parole, stating, "Mr. Martin should not be in prison but you should. Shut your mouth and finish your time."

This case, coupled with dozens of similar ones, where common sense and normal decency are buried beneath mountains of multicultural psychobabble, offers further evidence of the social and moral decay of what was once the nation admired for its unique legal system. In fact, England's current state brings to mind a couple of dictionary definitions of the word "degenerate": to decline in physical, mental, or moral qualities; to deteriorate; one who has declined, as in morals or character, from a type or standard considered normal.

From the Publisher
Dispatches From A Dying Country:
Reflections on Modern England
by Sean Gabb

he Hampden Press, London, 2001, 222pp

Reviewed by Derek Turner in Right Now!, October/December 2002

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Sean Gabb is one of Britain's best-known libertarian writers and campaigners, the editor of the Libertarian Alliance's Free Life journal and the creator of the Candidlist, the website that monitors politicians' actions and stances on the European Union – often to embarrassing effect for politicians who wish to be regarded as Eurosceptics.

In America, Gabb would probably be called a 'paleolibertarian' - that is, he combines a passionate belief in individual freedom with patriotism, a fondness for tradition and a realisation that society is made up of groups as well as individuals. In British terms, he is a Burkean Whig – as one might have guessed from the subtitle of the present work. Thus Gabb will attack increases in police powers, but defend the hereditary House of Lords - and in colourful, memorable language. And he is contemptuous of the British elite in general - "I have yet to see the smallest sign that anyone in the British political class is acting in good faith" - whether Tory MPs who go along with the Left for the sake of a quiet life. Labour ministers whose youthful idealism has become mere lust for power, newspaper editors who are afraid to tackle controversial topics, or academics who will not stand up for free speech. Yet he realises that every question is complex, and tries (not always successfully) to take an objective view of each issue. His acerbity masks an essential humanity, and a subtle under-standing of how human beings actually operate. This combination makes his writings as engaging as they are thoughtful, and has allowed him to, as he says, "collect a fan club of paranoid Americans and British eccentrics" (and others!).

The gloomily-entitled Dispatches From a Dying Country (in his pessimism, Gabb is a wholly orthodox conservative) is a miscellany of articles that appeared on the Internet between 1997 and 2001. This means they do not all sit together easily. The author has tried to arrange the various essays thematically, but ruefully concludes that the arrangement is merely the "least bad available". But this system - or lack of a system - does not really matter.

The first section, "Destroying Liberty", covers DNA databases, the London nail bombings, Gary Glitter, double jeopardy, attacks on Scientology, drinking and driving, drugs and data encryption. In every case, he is for the individual and persecuted minorities against the state - but he knows that sometimes commonsense dictates that a society must protect itself, for the sake of the majority of the individuals who live within it (although even then the state's powers should always be limited and - preferably - temporary).

Amongst other things, the section entitled "Deconstructing a Nation" covers the House of Lords, metrification and interesting case studies - that of Robert Henderson, the respected cricket writer who was in line to become the next editor of Wisden until he fell foul of both the Blairs and the race relations industry, and that of George Staunton, the OAP who was accused of fomenting racial hatred for writing "Free Speech for England" and "Remember the 1939-45 war" on a wall in Liverpool. The section called "The new imperialism" analyses the reasons for the attacks on Serbia and the imprisonment of General Pinochet (Gabb opposed both).

The essays that now appear within the section "Reflections on the Quisling Right" have dated somewhat - but are included because of the wider points made about Tory opportunism and lack of self-confidence. William Hague failed to win in 2001, says Gabb, because he made "no serious effort to win", his policies were never "convincingly explained and defended", he appointed "ludicrous nonentities" to the shadow cabinet (names gleefully provided) and did "worse than nothing" in opposition, failing to oppose the war in the Balkans, going along with Labour's class warfare against the Lords, praising the Macpherson Report, and declining even to attack Labour sleaze. Iain Duncan Smith will no doubt avoid similar mistakes!

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